Lawyers With Gift For Gab Will Have To Beat The Clock

September 23, 1985|By Mary Anderson, Staff Writer

Long-winded lawyers can expect to play ``Beat the Clock`` when Broward Circuit Judge Patricia Cocalis lays down the law on the five-minute limit that judges usually impose on arguments in early morning sessions to handle routine business.

Cocalis` bailiff, Charles Jacobi, knows when to set the old photo lab timer, mounted on a board with the admonition: ``Motions Five Min. Each Side.``

When a crowded calendar brings a crowded room full of lawyers, clamoring to get their clients` requests resolved, Jacobi sets it for both the naturally loquacious and for those who have set several motions for the judge`s attention.

Especially if the case is a hotly disputed matter. Especially if it`s a contested divorce.

``She starts that clock ticking, and it`s real funny to watch the attorneys, because as the hand gets closer, they start talking faster and faster to get their last words in,`` said Bill Stolberg, a lawyer whose family law cases have required the clock.

It goes off with a loud buzz that makes even Cocalis jump from her seat sometimes, if she`s absorbed with an attorney`s argument.

To warn her, Jacobi will stand behind the seat of the lawyer with one minute to go.

``Every lawyer that comes in asks about the clock,`` Cocalis said. ``I think it works because it`s so visible.``

Jacobi often jokes with the unitiated lawyers that it`s connected to an ejection device in their seats.

``Sometimes `The Boss` will let them go a little over,`` he said, referring to Cocalis. ``Sometimes she lets them talk too long. She wants to be courteous. Then I become the bad guy, because I`ll snap my finger and say, `Out,`` motioning to the door, he said.

``I was really kind of taken aback because of the size of the thing,`` Stolberg said. ``It looks like something used on a submarine or some kind of official device.``

With a roomful of lawyers each trying to get their last word in, he said, ``It`s the Gong Show.`` But it sometimes works, when little else does, he said.

Although Cocalis` clock may be the most imposing device used by a Broward judge for moving things along, other judges have various methods for dealing with a common problem.

The problem is that lawyers often try to set complex or multiple matters for the ``motion calendar`` each judge uses to schedule quick requests.

Lawyers can usually get before a judge on the motion calendar with a week`s or less notice, but must sometimes wait for months to get a fuller hearing.

Five minutes for each side is the rule on motion calendars, ``which all the attorneys ignore, because no attorney can keep his mouth shut,`` Stolberg said.